Marcus Eugene Jones (1892–1934) was inspired to pursue a career in botany from a young age thanks to an interest in plants and nature sparked by both his mother, who taught him about plants local to his hometown of Jefferson, Ohio, and his father, who was a logger and taught him about the various tree species at his sawmill. He graduated from Grinnell College (at the time Iowa College) with an M.A. in 1878, and began teaching in 1879 at Colorado College after a year of exploring and collecting plants in Colorado. Jones would go on to spend large portions of his life on similar expeditions exploring the western half of the country while observing, collecting, and naming plants. Beyond his botanical and teaching careers, he also had a good deal of knowledge in the realm of mining and geology, starting with his operation of a silver mine in 1893 in Nevada and leading to an appointment as the state geologist of Utah. Afterwards, he returned to botanical studies and participated in many research trips both within the United States and abroad. In the early 1900s he began publishing Contributions to Western Botany, in which he dissemenated his notes, articles, and novel species. 17 volumes of Contributions were published in his lifetime, and his manuscripts for volume 18 were arranged and published by his daughter Mabel Jones Broaddus posthumously.